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Perspective changes everything

My first year coaching basketball was what most would classify as not a very successful one. Our team went 9-16 and, as I’ve always believed, a win is a win and a loss is a loss. My second and third years were even worse. It was a new school and a new team and we finished both seasons 2-19! Three years into coaching a sport I love, and my career record was 13-54! But, don’t be deceived by records.

That first year I took over a team that previously had gone 2-25! They didn’t play well together, were very selfish, and liked all the glory. In my year there, we learned through a lot of hard work and discipline the value of teamwork. We focused a lot of our practices on developing fundamentals because they were average and needed to improve. So despite the poor record, they improved 7 games. The year after I left, through a lot more hard work and continuing to trust each other more and more, they went something like 16-7.

A chance to return to the U.P. brought me to a school where the team hadn’t won in something like 6 years. Like I said, we were 2-19. In those 19 losses, the mercy rule came into play 15 times! So while looking strictly at the record, you would think it was a failure of a season but I would argue we’d won more that year than the last 6 combined. The second year we still went 2-19, but only 6 of our 19 losses were via the mercy rule. So despite the same record, it could be argued the team improved quite a bit. Other than the typical powerhouse teams we faced, they were pretty semi competitive for the most part.

When you learn perspective and the circumstances surrounding a situation, you are more often able to understand the whole picture. Don’t we often do this in our daily walk too though? We look at a situation and see the worst. We see that 2-19 record and don’t realize all the hard work that was put in or the improvements that were made.

A know I do this a lot with my school loan debt that I accrued over the years. I may look at it and see the $30,000 mound of debt in front of me and get frustrated. How am I ever going to pay it off? Will this burden ever be lifted from my life? My family’s lives? Or, I could look and say that over past couple years we’ve managed to knock off almost $20,000 and we’re getting closer and closer. And, despite having moved 3 times in 6 years for my job, we’ve managed to consistently chip away at that sucker. We do this in many areas of life, not just debt. Perspective can change a seemingly rotten situation into one to rejoice in. I thank God that I’ve been able to pay off that much. I thank God for providing me with work, even though I’ve been laid off a couple times, He’s provided.

Colossians 2: 6-7 tells us to continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” And James 1:16 tell us to not be deceived. When we are rooted firmly in Him, it helps us to not become deceived. It doesn’t mean we won’t be ever deceived, but we can cling to His truth and that will help us see clearly and change our perspective. It will help us to be thankful for what we have instead of focusing on the bad in every situation.

There’s an old Audio Adrenaline song and the first line reads: “I want to see the world through Jesus eyes” Imagine how our perspectives would change and how thankful our hearts would be if we could truly see the world through His eyes! Lord, help us to do just that. Change our perspective, change our hearts. Help us to see through Your perspective